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Religious Repression in Xinjiang Continues During Ramadan

May 5, 2008

Local governments and educational institutions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued in 2007 to impose religious restrictions on Muslims' observance of the holiday of Ramadan. Local governments and schools called for increased controls over religious activities during Ramadan, banning students from fasting, forbidding teachers and other state employees from engaging in religious activities, and requiring local restaurants to remain open during the holiday.

Local governments and educational institutions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued in 2007 to impose religious restrictions on Muslims' observance of the holiday of Ramadan. Local governments and schools called for increased controls over religious activities during Ramadan, banning students from fasting, forbidding teachers and other state employees from engaging in religious activities, and requiring local restaurants to remain open during the holiday.

In the township of Yitimliqum in Qarghiliq county, local Party and government officials convened a meeting to instruct attendees, including local cadres, teachers' representatives, and religious personnel, to intensify inspection and supervision of religious activities during Ramadan, according to a September 13 report on the Qarghiliq county government Web site. Authorities called for strengthening measures by villages and schools to administer and control religious activities; intensifying implementation of the "two systems" of maintaining regular government contact with mosques and religious figures; ensuring religious activities and worship sites remain under the administration of "patriotic religious personages" and preventing unlicensed religious clergy from leading religious activities; and prohibiting party members, state cadres, and minors from observing Ramadan or participating in other religious activities. The report also called for preventing unauthorized religious pilgrimages and eliminating "infiltration and sabotage" activities carried out in the name of religion.

Party and government officials in Yopurgha county inspected local restaurants and food service companies during Ramadan to "strengthen work regarding social stability during Ramadan and protect market order," according to a September 18 report on the Kashgar government Web site. Authorities forbade restaurant and food service businesses from closing during the holiday and instructed the food service industry to serve the needs of customers not observing Ramadan. The report said that authorities would "deal sternly" with individuals and businesses that forced restaurants to close during the holiday.

In a September 15 speech posted on the Bügür county government Web site, local Party Secretary Zhang Zhengrong stated that Party members, cadres, and students may not profess a religion. Zhang called on schools to strengthen propaganda education during Ramadan and to put a stop to activities including fasting and professing a religion.

The Kashgar Teachers College implemented a series of measures to prevent students from observing Ramadan, according to a September 25 report from Radio Free Asia. The school imposed communal meals and required students to obtain permission to leave campus. School authorities also made students gather for a school assembly at a time of day coinciding with Friday prayers. The report noted that under direction from the government, other schools in the region appeared to be implementing similar measures in order to prevent students from observing the holiday.

These restrictions over the observance of Ramadan are a continuation of repressive measures implemented by local governments and educational institutions in previous years. According to reports issued in 2006, Qarghiliq county education offices required schools to enforce communal lunches for students and teachers and instructed school officials to take other preventative measures to ensure that students did not fast or participate in other religious activities. Aqsu prefecture education officials forbade teachers from fasting during Ramadan and forcing or leading students to participate in religious activities, among other measures. In the XUAR capital, Urumqi, and within Kashgar prefecture, local governments also enforced measures to prevent students from fasting.

Religious repression in the XUAR during Ramadan reflects broader religious controls that local governments and Party leaders impose in the region. As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2007 Annual Report (via the Government Printing Office Web site), in recent years the government has limited access to mosques, detained citizens for possession of unauthorized religious texts, imprisoned citizens for religious activities determined to be "extremist," and most recently confiscated Muslims' passports in an effort to strengthen control over Muslim pilgrimages. In addition, the XUAR government maintains the most severe legal restrictions in China on children's right to practice religion.

For more information on conditions in the XUAR and on religion in China, see the CECC 2007 Annual Report, Section II--Freedom of Religion, and Section II--Ethnic Minority Rights, subsection on Rights Abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.